Saturday, March 9, 2013

Celebrating Enlightenment in the North


    I’m still getting acquainted with my sewing machine and working on the upcoming Lotus and Lace clothing line.  Hopefully I’ll have a few pieces ready to show soon.  In the meantime, I thought I’d share some more photos from my recent trip to Chiang Mai.  Chiang Mai was once the capital of the Northern Lanna kingdom during age of Siam.  It is a city with a charming small-town feel and a rich history that affords it plenty of sights, many of which are Buddhist temples.  It boasts over 300 of them!

 
 
 
 

     I happened to be there on a special Buddhist holiday, called Makha Bucha, which celebrates the teachings and enlightenment of the Buddha. Around the country, participants go to their chosen temples and perform candlelight processions called wian tian (“wian” means “to circle around”; “tian” means “candle”). The candlelight represents and honors the Buddha’s enlightenment. They also make offerings of flowers and incense. The flowers serve as a reminder of life’s impermanence, and the incense symbolizes the fragrant aroma of morality. It is also said that the scent of the incense permeates and spreads in all directions and thus symbolizes the power of the Buddha’s teaching to reach and transform all forms of greed, hate and delusion.


 
 
 
 

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